Not that we would make such an accusation against one so eminent as our own Foreign Secretary: However, a more radical option is now being considered that could solve Europe’s rearmament crisis overnight.

The idea sounds superficially attractive. No more national wars or territorial grabs.

In which Professor Smith points out the cost and absurdity of subsidising home production when you can buy the goods you want far more cheaply from other countries.

This is presented as a grand problem: Foreign exporters – chiefly China – will race to offload stock they can no longer sell competitively in the US, possibly undercutting British producers.

Enough on Donald Trump. Since the White House fracas, too many commentators have focussed on the President’s lack of manners.

The development of the modern industrialized world could be interpreted as a series of jumps, rather than a continuous line of development.

What confuses is why this is a surprise for anyone: Britain’s net zero drive has made families poorer, according to new research that contradicts Rachel Reeves’s claim that there is no trade-off between economic growth and decarbonisation.

First, the bad news. The world is running out of scarce resources and none will be left for our children. The seas and rivers are polluted, and the air we breathe is toxic.

We are against this idea: Under discussion is a new UN tax convention that may permit states to tax economic activity where it actually occurs, rather than allowing multinationals to shift profits to tax havens.

When we were at St Andrews, a group of us used to play word games in the Union Bar. One was Tom Swifties, then called Tom Swiftlies.

We are, of course, supposed to react in horror to this factoid as presented: These days burger giant McDonald’s – surely the country’s most famous export – contributes as much to America’s GDP as the entire state of Rhode Island.

It’s possible that a booming Net Zero economy is actually a bad idea in fact: The net zero sector is growing three times faster than the overall UK economy, analysis has found, providing high-wage jobs across the country while cutting climate-heating emissions and increasing energy security.